This section provides background information related to the present disclosure which is not necessarily prior art.
Many drivers are unaware of the condition of the vehicle's brakes and/or tires. As a vehicle ages, naturally, so do the vehicle's brakes and tires. Aging of the vehicle's brakes and/or tires leads to deterioration of the vehicle's brakes and/or tires. Deterioration in a vehicle's brakes and/or tires can cause increased stopping distance/time. Many drivers do not notice the extra distance/time required to stop because the extra distance/time is increasing gradually over time. The extra distance/time may be due to the vehicle's worn brakes and/or worn tires. There are specialized sensors that monitor the wear and tear of brakes and/or tires. However, these specialized sensors are costly and are hard to retrofit for an existing vehicle. The present teachings make use of many of the existing sensors included in vehicles to evaluate brake performance and to provide drivers with a brake deterioration warning in response to determining that brake performance has deteriorated. Once the warning is provided, drivers may have their vehicles, in particular, brakes and/or tires evaluated by a service professional.
Additionally, the brake deterioration warning may be transmitted to other vehicles or devices nearby the vehicle with deteriorated brake performance using short range communication forms such as dedicated short range communication (DSRC). Other forms of short range communication may also be used in lieu of DSRC.
The drawings described herein are for illustrative purposes only of selected embodiments and not all possible implementations, and are not intended to limit the scope of the present disclosure.
In the drawings, reference numbers may be reused to identify similar and/or identical elements.